One of the more popular former Catholic parishes that I’ve posted about before is the former St. Engelbert’s on Shreve Avenue in the Penrose neighborhood. It might also win the informal award of “Largest Catholic church building most people have never heard of in St. Louis,” as well. It’s huge. I was poking around on Google Satellite in the last month and realized that the former parish’s campus is quite large, as well.
Heading east/southeast down Carter Avenue, we first come across the rectory, which is also logically in what I might call English Gothic Revival or Tudor Revival, the latter of which segued from the former in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. But the back half of the rectory is what really got me excited, as it is obviously much older than the front. As I remarked in my original post about St. Engelbert’s and can be seen in this photo, the parish originally started as a church/school combo, sitting right on Carter just to the north of this building below. I think this structure below was an addition to that original church, and was left behind when a new rectory was built facing Carter.
The school is next heading east and has a cornerstone dated May 4, 1930. It last functioned as the St. Louis Catholic Academy.
Considering the marquee out front still has a message about the last day of school, I jumped to the conclusion that it has closed. Online research reveals that it is still operating in the school building near the site of the now-demolished St. Bridget’s on North Jefferson Avenue.
Now, this building is definitely in the Tudor Revival style, and I have to wonder if it was designed by William Ittner or Rockwell Milligan; however, their names are not on the cornerstone, which is out of character for their schools.
The cupola is beautiful and not stolen for now.
There is a large paved parking lot and playground back behind the school.
The brickwork is just beautiful.
I looked at these houses along Carter back in October of 2017 at the same time as the church. It’s nice around here with few vacant houses.
Everyone blew through this stop sign while I was photographing the campus.
